Payday 2 developer Starbreeze has introduced a new subscription service to the 12-year-old heist shooter, bundling “full access to more than 65 DLCs, packed with heists, weapons, and cosmetics” “for a low monthly cost” of $4.99 per month, or $19.99 for six months. There are currently no options for three-month or 12-monthly subscriptions.
The company said the subscription will allow players to “explore Payday 2’s massive content library at their own pace, mastering the art of heisting one crime at a time” and the subscription — available via Steam — “can be canceled at anytime.”
“With more than a decade of content behind Payday 2, we want to give players greater flexibility in how they experience the game,” said Gustav Nisser, head of commercial at Starbreeze. “The subscription service makes it simple and cost-effective to enjoy everything PAYDAY 2 has to offer – whether you’re new to the game or returning to explore DLCs you haven’t yet played. At the same time, all existing DLCs remain available for purchase as before. This is about giving players more choice.”
Crucially, however, the terms of the subscription indicate it only applies to “all of the currently available Payday 2 DLCs as long as you’re subscribed,” leaving some players wondering if it will cover any potentially new DLC yet to come, as Starbreeze is still periodically releasing new content for the game, mostly recently with the Crude Awakening Heist in 2023.
“I understand the idea and in fairness it’s not a terrible one, new players can subscribe for a month and see what it’s all about without fully committing,” commented one player. “Some may play the game on and off and so instead of spending all that dosh at once they subscribe for months they wanna play.
“The issue is the DLC bundle was hiked recently, the DLC isn’t all that spectacular, and some of the DLC is priced stupidly for the little content it has (like having 2-3 guns for $10.95 aud for example, that’s ridiculous). This is one of those times where they kinda can’t read the room almost like the time they promised no DLC for Payday 2 then backtracked.”
“I wouldn’t even mind so much if they didn’t jack up the prices of bundles,” said someone else.
The bundle they’re referring to is Payday 2 Infamous Collection, the bundle that contains every DLC released since 2013. Because although it openly announced the subscription and its cost, Starbreeze has quietly increased the price of the Infamous Collection by 50%, going from $100 to $150 without formal notification.
“There is nothing wrong with the subscription itself, it’s the Infamous Collection pricing change which is the problem,” suggested someone else. “[W]ith this subscription, Starbreeze also decided to hugely increase the price of Infamous Collection, to essentially make you pay for the subscription instead, which is nuts.
“Also, with the recent new heist for Payday 3 being more expensive than usual, how do we know that the same won’t happen for Payday 3 with its DLCs and DLC packs in future?
What’s also worrying is that Starbreeze hasn’t said anything about this yet.”
“It upsets me that such changes are made quietly, as if hoping that no one will notice,” added another, to which someone responded: “It really feels like they’re just trying to slip it under the radar and see if they can get away with it without a major uproar. This kind of stuff erodes goodwill so fast.”
At the time of writing, Starbreeze has seemingly not publicly responded to fan concerns.
When Payday 3 released in September 2023, we thought its cooperative heists were “off to a strong start, even if the vault is a bit bare at the moment.” It returned a Good 7/10.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
